The Department of Internal Affairs

Te Tari Taiwhenua | Department of Internal Affairs

Building a safe, prosperous and respected nation



About the Digital Safety Group

New Zealanders should feel free to participate online and express themselves regardless of their gender, race, sexual orientation or religious background. The Digital Safety Group work to help make the digital world a safer place for everyone in New Zealand.

The regulatory role of the Digital Safety Group

The Department is responsible for enforcing two pieces of legislation:

  1. The Films Videos and Publications Classification Act (the FVPCA)
  2. The Unsolicited Electronic Messages Act (the UEMA)

The Unsolicited Electronic Messages Act (UEMA)

The UEMA attempts to ease the online burden for consumers and businesses by prohibiting unsolicited commercial electronic messages with a New Zealand link from being sent.

The Films Videos and Publications Classification Act (FVPCA)

The FVPCA is intended to restrict access to harmful content, prevent access to banned content and ensure that commercial films and streaming services display adequate consumer information. The Digital Safety Group enforces the FVPCA which helps ensure that the online space is made safer for New Zealanders.

Overview of the Digital Safety Group

The Digital Safety Group is made up of several teams that work to address four main areas of online harm:

Digital Safety Group: Intelligence and Insights: Provides strategic, tactical and operational intelligence support to investigate teams and help anticipate emerging risks and issues in the online environment; Design, Engagement & Innovation: Supports the development of operational policy, stakeholder engagement, communication, education, classification and Commercial Video OnDemand regulation and prevention initiatives including Keep It Real Online; Digital Violent Extremism: Enforces the Films, Videos and Publications Classification Act 1993 by investigating and preventing the spread of objectionable material that promotes or encourages violent extremism online; Digital Messaging & Systems: Enforces the Unsolicited Electronic Messages Act 2004 by investigating instances of spam and work with organisations to promote education and awareness about sending commercial electronic messages; Digital Child Exploitation: Enforces the Films, Videos and Publications Classification Act 1993 by investigating and preventing the spread of objectionable and restricted material including child sexual abuse material and classification reports

(Click on image to open a larger version of this diagram - PNG, 73KB)

Combatting digital child exploitation

The exploitation of children online continues to be a significant and growing problem. The Department focuses on detecting, investigating and prosecuting individuals who produce, distribute and possess illegal child sexual abuse and other illegal child abuse content. Given the borderless nature of the internet, there is a significant collaborative effort with local and international law enforcement agencies to tackle the spread of child sexual abuse material.

More information about the work of the Digital Child Exploitation Team can be found here: Online Safety

Reducing harmful digital messaging

Online scams and spam pose a great risk to New Zealand consumers. The Department takes enforcement action against those who breach the UEMA, facilitates international and local industry/agency liaison, monitors emerging technologies, and advises public and private agencies on spam matters

More information about the Digital Messaging Team can be found here: New Zealand Spam Law

Countering digital violent extremism

Although the existence of objectionable (illegal) violent extremist material online is not new, it has become an increasing problem over the past number of years. In the aftermath of the March 15, 2019 attacks on two Christchurch Mosques, the Department established a new team in the Digital Safety Group focused on addressing violent extremist material online.

More information about the Digital Violent Extremism Team can be found here: Countering Violent Extremism Online

Classification in New Zealand

The Films, Videos, and Publications Classification Act 1993 ('the Act') regulates how publications such as films, including commercial video on-demand content and games are classified in New Zealand. The Department makes sure that the Act is enforced to help protect people from material that is injurious to the public good. 

More information about New Zealand’s classification regime can be found here: Classification in New Zealand

Back to Top